Xp and level spread in your campaign

[Nifft]

Right now they're all the same level, but at worst they're 1 level apart, so far.

-- N

 

[Alynnalizza]

Most of the time the characters are the same level, with a sorceror or wizard having one level additional. (Personal preference, 8 hp at 2nd level still sucks ).

The biggest gap I have ever had is 2 levels for the characters in my games, and that is usually only after a PC has died and came back to the group. Although, if I did give out true role-playing rewards the gap would be somewhere to 3-4 levels difference once level 10 was hit.
I am blessed with 2 good role-players, and one that 'shows up'.

 

[Qvintus]

I find that Item creation slows the wiizrd's/cleric's a lvl back but then they get more XP form each encounter (they are lower lvl)
So they get a bit behind but on the other hand the fighters tend to die a bit more offen.

 

[thalmin]

At the beginning of a campaign, everone starts out the same. Due to absence and level of participation, it starts to spread out. Should a character die, usually the new character comes in a bit lower than the party average.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I think 1-2 levels is normal, my current group being 5th & 6th
I give a set amount of exp to all players, with a +5-15% bonus for roleplaying, or clever ideas (baised on specific incidents)

I also give an across the board 20% exp bonus to lower level pcs instead of bothering to calculate the difference - when I ran the numbers on 3 sessions it was actually 21%-23%. To improve the gap closure I will rasie it to +25% as suggested earlier by Kalendraf.

Death is a huge set back, as new pc's brought in at minmum for lowest level in party, bringing a pc back from the dead would put them even further behind. Just loosing earned experiance puts them back 1-2 sessions in exp.
Attendence is also an issue, since each adventure gives 1/3 exp needed to level, missing a session is costly. The most consistant player is a mage/crafter and a good roleplayer, so his exp is only slightly above the average.

 

[The_Gneech]

I try to keep the characters pretty close, but that rogue just keeps on dying...

-The Gneech

 

[Thanee]

Well, we use the old FRCS XP system, which is now standard in 3.5.

So, if a PC dies and gets raised, the level hit will probably be there for a couple games, but eventually they all keep up with the rest.

I voted 1-2 levels difference, since D&D is really hard to play without a healthy dose of balance, unless you remove combat, that is.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

In our group, the sorcerer is the highest level (and pretty much always has been). That's cause she almost never misses a game and when she does, it ends up being a low xp game.

Everyone is forcebly kept within one level of one another. When the highest level character levels, anyone who is more than one level behind is brought up to their next level. IE, When the Sorcerer made 13th, all those still at 11th level were brought up to 12th level.

We also are operating on half experience awards. The other half gets dumped into an xp shunt which can be used for item creation. There is also a trade in of 1xp being worth 2gp for item creation, with up to 90% of the cost being able to be subsumed by xp usage. This has done a good job of stopping item creators (our bard and a cleric cohort) from falling behind. Our shunt currently has enough XP to be considered a 12th level character in its own right.

 

[Kormydigar]

Thom's poll of the week. This question relates to fairness in gaming. The D&D and D20 system is designed around the idea that all the characters are about (or exactly) the same level. This makes it difficult for players to have character concepts like the old master and his student. But I have seen it done, the level differences are ignored, and everyone has a blast.

So, how much spread of XP is there in your campaign?

Or if you prefer to think of this in a fariness way: how much of a spread should there be, given your character will be on the short end of the scale?

I voted for the 3-4 level spread. This is purely a function of player attendence in the games I run. When real life intrudes upon game time the effect is seen in level spread which has gotten as far as a 3-4 level difference. In addition to the players character gaining no XP for the missed session, the experience that is earned is divided by fewer characters which increases the gap. Since this a real life effect, no one seems to mind this much, and the group still works well together.

 

[myorke]

Our group tends to stay within 2 levels of each other, the differences typically being the result of multiple missed sessions or PC death.

While reading a little about item creation being the cause of a lot of differences in other groups, it occured to me that the following might be a workable house rule solution: XP are not lost at all during item creation. Instead they are considered 'used' which means that your PC's current XP total reflects the total XP gained, which is used as a pool for item creation. A PC would be able to keep up with his/her colleagues, but still only be able to use each XP once in item creation/spell use. In other words, the XP used to determine current level is the total of used and unused XP.

To make this balanced, you may have to increase the XP cost of item creation a little bit, say by as much as 50%. Has anyone else tried this type of thing yet? None of my players regularly engage in item creation and perhaps this might encourage them... if they ever go back to town.